Written for and originally published in the local Patch.
Let me tell you a story. It is about a man with a troubling past who rises, through corruption and violence, to rule a nation. He surrounds himself with thugs and bends the religious leaders of his nation to his will. He is aggressive, invading neighbors, and claiming territory in the region based on the presence of individuals that share his nationality. If he bullies and terrorizes his neighbors, he reserves the purest hate for the vulnerable in his own country. He trumps up charges, crafts hate-filled legislation, and incites street violence against minorities. And in the midst of this frenzy of evil, he is rewarded with the Olympics.
I could be talking about Hitler and the 1936 Berlin Olympics. But I am speaking about Putin and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Putin is running a brutal gulag state. He has invaded one neighbor, and bullies others. Instead of Jews, his scapegoats are immigrant workers and homosexuals. Most notoriously, he has turned a blind eye to the growing abduction and torture of gay teens. In one recent case, the teenage boy was lured via the internet. Beaten and brutalized, he was forced to admit his supposed evils on video tape by Neo-Nazi thugs inspired by the Putin hate campaign. The images have been seen around the globe, the terror and violence. The boy died not long after his release.
You may not care about a few gay boys, or for that matter, about immigrant workers in Russia. But you should be worried about the growing shadow of evil in eastern Europe. Hitler faced chronic shortages of raw materials, limiting his war efforts and making him easier to defeat when his aggression went to far. Putin will face no such shortages should the world decide that his behavior cannot stand.
Some make lofty claims for the Olympic movement. They like to claim that it is above politics or economics. This is a lie. In the modern age, the Olympics has always been a massive economic engine for the host country. And it has always been used for propaganda and geopolitical gain. Today, the Olympic movement is so closely tied with corporate branding that we might do better to refer to it as the Olympic Industrial Complex.
Yes, somewhere in there you will find true amateur athletes doing something they love, often with tremendous grace and beauty. And for a week or so we’ll be glued to our televisions watching hockey and figure skating, and for the diehards, curling. We will drive up ratings, count medals, and help strengthen one of the most dangerous state-actors of our time. Russia Ãœber Alles.